Why spend so much time Exercising?

We all know how important it is to get up from our desks and move, to exercise for our brains and prevent disease with regular activity. However, is there a more efficient and better way to get our exercise with the busy schedules we all have? 
The answer is high intensity interval training, or HIIT. 

HIIT exercising is a technique where you go max effort, all out, for short periods of time with intervals of recovery rest periods between exertions. It is a "go hard or go home" style of exercise usually involving cardio fitness.   Your max effort must involve getting your heart rate up to at least 85% of your individual maximum heart rate and the rest interval has your heart rate at 40-50% of your maximum resting heart rate.
Here are some benefits to hitt training:

It takes less time
Martin Bibala is a researcher out of McMaster University in Ontario and is the author of "The One Minute Workout". His research in 2014 showed that people doing HITT for just one minute at a time, were able to improve their endurance and lower their blood pressure with the total workout being only 10 minutes long!
The sedentary subjects warmed up for 2 minutes on a stationary bike, then pedaled at max effort for three 20 second spurts, followed by two more minutes of slower pedaling. After the last 20 second interval, they pedaled slowly for three minutes, adding up to 10 minutes total.

You Loose Weight Not Muscle
Hitt training is a blast of good stress to the body.  It causes the body to respond with a release of hormones and chemical reactions that help you grow and repair tissue, including muscle.  Your intense cardio workout causes the body to burn muscle energy reserves (glycogen) and then replenish this reserve by drawing sugars from the blood or converting fat reserves into sugar to be used by the muscles. 

You Can Lower Blood Sugars
A summary of 50 different studies found that not only does HIIT reduce blood sugar, but it also improves insulin resistance more than traditional continuous exercise. Based on this information, it is possible that high-intensity exercise is particularly beneficial for those at risk for type 2 diabetes.  Experiments specifically in individuals with type 2 diabetes have demonstrated the effectiveness of HIIT for improving blood sugar. However, research in healthy individuals indicates that HIIT may be able to improve even more insulin sensitivity than traditional continuous exercise.

How to Get Started
Incorporating HITT training into your existing exercise routine is quite easy.  Crank up your intervals of exercise with running sprints, jump rope, hill training, and bike sprints.  If you are looking at starting to exercise and want to incorporate HITT training, it is important to talk to health care provider to ensure that you are in good cario-vascular health to handle the intensity. Start with an athletic trainer, such and get good advice to avoid injury.  If you are running short of time try short bursts of exercise and get similar results to that long run! Keep active!

Activity fact: 25 minutes of HITT can do as much for your body as 10 hours of straight jogging